Affordable home-based care should be priority: Eldercare providers

SINGAPORE - Eldercare providers said Singaporeans should have access to affordable home-based healthcare services. But providers said they are finding it a challenge to beef up manpower to cater to the rise in demand for their services. The Health Ministry has said it wants to at least double the outreach of home-based healthcare services, from the current 4,000 beneficiaries. 33-year-old staff nurse, Norsila Hamid, works for the Home Nursing Foundation (HNF), a voluntary welfare organisation providing nursing services for the needy and elderly sick at their homes. She travels around the island, visiting between six and eight patients every day - dressing wounds, dispensing medication and checking on their health. Norsila said: "With the heavy backpack, (whether its) rain, shine, thunder or lightning, we still have to attend to our patients. "When we step into the patient'...